The proceedings available for download as a Word document, at right, are a record of the activities, resulting posters, and what was said at a hui held at Waipapa Marae, University of Auckland, on 26 November 2004 to help establish a Māori electoral research agenda.

The hui was organised by the Electoral Commission in association with Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (National Institute of Research for Māori Development and Advancement) and the Faculty of Arts at the University of Auckland.

In a number of places comments are grouped together on a similar theme rather than leaving them all in the order in which people said things.  As Chatham House Rules were used no comments are attributed to a particular person.

Electoral participation in New Zealand is falling.  Māori are more likely to be among the non-enrolled.  While just over half of enrolled Māori are on the Māori roll, turnout in the Māori seats at the 2002 General Election was 57.6% compared with 78.5% in general seats.  The Māori population is growing, so the negative impact of Māori non-participation on the quality of New Zealand's democracy will compound quickly if things do not change, the commission said in its invitation to participants.

The Electoral Commission wants to help raise Māori participation in electoral matters.  It wants particularly to influence those whose policies and programmes can encourage greater Maori electoral participation. 

The hui, a facilitated workshop, focused on establishing the research agenda, not on identifying possible solutions to increasing Māori electoral participation.  It sought to draw out sources and summaries of what is known and existing data available for further analysis against our purpose.  It attempted to identify starting points, and analytical frameworks for both issue definition and research design and action.